Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => Science and Technology => Topic started by: Nearly Sane on July 14, 2015, 10:10:24 PM

Title: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Nearly Sane on July 14, 2015, 10:10:24 PM
The beauty of Pluto

http://mic.com/articles/122220/nasa-releases-first-photos-of-plutos-surface
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: L.A. on July 15, 2015, 10:09:34 AM
The beauty of Pluto

http://mic.com/articles/122220/nasa-releases-first-photos-of-plutos-surface

I wholeheartedly agree NS, it's a phenomenal achievement. The transmission rate is only 1kilobits so it's going to take months to get all the data back. There should be some interesting stuff in the pipeline.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: jeremyp on July 15, 2015, 10:39:33 AM
The beauty of Pluto

It's certainly an achievement that we have these photos, but it looks like a barren rock to me.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Rhiannon on July 15, 2015, 12:38:40 PM
It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Udayana on July 15, 2015, 12:41:15 PM
The beauty of Pluto

http://mic.com/articles/122220/nasa-releases-first-photos-of-plutos-surface

I wholeheartedly agree NS, it's a phenomenal achievement. The transmission rate is only 1kilobits so it's going to take months to get all the data back. There should be some interesting stuff in the pipeline.

At least they are getting a signal - our friends who have moved to Somerset can't get one at all!

I think they will probably change it back to being a full planet again.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Hope on July 15, 2015, 12:47:08 PM
I wholeheartedly agree NS, it's a phenomenal achievement. The transmission rate is only 1kilobits so it's going to take months to get all the data back. There should be some interesting stuff in the pipeline.
Up to 15 months if I heard the reporter correctly on the news at noon.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Hope on July 15, 2015, 12:50:03 PM
I'm looking forward to the higher res. picture due later this afternoon.

(You can't use so many shortcuts without opening oneself to misprints!!)
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: BashfulAnthony on July 15, 2015, 03:22:57 PM
It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Shaker on July 15, 2015, 04:43:36 PM
I'm not sure this Pluto business is all it's cracked up to be  :(

https://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/capture.png
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Walt Zingmatilder on July 15, 2015, 06:15:31 PM
Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Shaker on July 15, 2015, 06:17:27 PM
Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?
No, but we know that they should be.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: jeremyp on July 15, 2015, 06:29:58 PM
I'm not sure this Pluto business is all it's cracked up to be  :(

https://whyevolutionistrue.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/capture.png
That's no dwarf planet. It's a space station.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Rhiannon on July 15, 2015, 07:13:39 PM
It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Hope on July 15, 2015, 09:14:20 PM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-33543383
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: BashfulAnthony on July 16, 2015, 08:45:59 AM
It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.

Not sure whether your reference was to your dog's anatomy...?
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: L.A. on July 16, 2015, 11:54:38 AM
I wholeheartedly agree NS, it's a phenomenal achievement. The transmission rate is only 1kilobits so it's going to take months to get all the data back. There should be some interesting stuff in the pipeline.
Up to 15 months if I heard the reporter correctly on the news at noon.

Yes, I heard that it's likely to be over a year, which probably means that there are going to be ongoing discoveries as they receive new data.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: jeremyp on July 16, 2015, 12:57:14 PM
An interesting point that nobody seems to have mentioned is the technical difficulty of taking photographs out there.  Pluto is apparently 3.67 billion miles from the Sun whereas the Earth is a mere 92 million miles.  At that distance, the Sun doesn't look very different to any of the other stars in the local part of the galaxy.  In fact we can calculate light levels using the inverse square law.  The light that Pluto experiences is as a fraction of the light Earth experiences is (92/3670)2 or about 1/1600.  You need quite a sensitive camera.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Rhiannon on July 17, 2015, 12:26:00 PM
It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.

Not sure whether your reference was to your dog's anatomy...?

No. He left his at the vet's a couple of years' ago.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: cyberman on July 17, 2015, 02:55:47 PM
It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.

Not sure whether your reference was to your dog's anatomy...?

No. He left his at the vet's a couple of years' ago.

Thank God for that! I thought we'd had a disturbing insight into life behind closed doors there!
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Walt Zingmatilder on July 18, 2015, 08:42:46 AM
Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?
No, but we know that they should be.
Ah, Commercialisation on a cosmic scale.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: BeRational on July 18, 2015, 03:28:42 PM
Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?
No, but we know that they should be.
Ah, Commercialisation on a cosmic scale.

I think you mean freedom.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Walt Zingmatilder on July 18, 2015, 04:47:40 PM
Do we know whether supermarkets are allowed to stay open all day on Pluto yet?
No, but we know that they should be.
Ah, Commercialisation on a cosmic scale.

I think you mean freedom.
I don't know, One persons liberty to do may well impinge on another's liberty to
be but I agree that packing shopoholics and the ''let's shit on people who want a period of relative non commercialism brigade'' of to Pluto could be liberty all round.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Shaker on July 18, 2015, 06:33:39 PM
Non-commercialism? That's when you're not in a shop or shopping online, isn't it?

I'd have thought you can have that any time you like, by not being in a shop and not shopping online.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Hope on July 19, 2015, 05:52:53 PM
Non-commercialism? That's when you're not in a shop or shopping online, isn't it?

I'd have thought you can have that any time you like, by not being in a shop and not shopping online.
Oh Shaker, you seem to miss the point.  Commercialism has invaded just about every aspect of our lives.  It occurs on TV and radio (and not merely 'commercial' TV and radio), sport, the paid-for 'placement' of products in films, bus and train shelters, newspapers (many being paid for by commercial entities), etc. etc.  In fact, it's hard to get away from it.  I well remember one airborne advert for sun protection goods being flown across a beach in N. Wales at the height of the summer holidays.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Shaker on July 19, 2015, 06:05:43 PM
Non-commercialism? That's when you're not in a shop or shopping online, isn't it?

I'd have thought you can have that any time you like, by not being in a shop and not shopping online.
Oh Shaker, you seem to miss the point.  Commercialism has invaded just about every aspect of our lives.  It occurs on TV and radio (and not merely 'commercial' TV and radio), sport, the paid-for 'placement' of products in films, bus and train shelters, newspapers (many being paid for by commercial entities), etc. etc.  In fact, it's hard to get away from it.  I well remember one airborne advert for sun protection goods being flown across a beach in N. Wales at the height of the summer holidays.
And? Doesn't bother me. Most of it doesn't even register on my consciousness - if it did, and I was bothered by it, I'd look the other way.

Eleanor Roosevelt is famously supposed to have said that nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. Same goes for commercialism; the only person who allows you to be perturbed by it is you.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Hope on September 11, 2015, 06:45:43 PM
The latest pics are pretty dramatic

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-34221730
http://1.usa.gov/1UKX43R  (NASA's official site)
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Red Giant on September 29, 2015, 06:06:41 AM
Why are all planets made of rock?
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Rhiannon on September 29, 2015, 06:56:55 AM
That sounds like humbug to me.


(Sorry)
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Red Giant on September 30, 2015, 03:00:57 AM
It depend on whether you view rock as dead in the same way that, say, concrete is.

That said, those pictures remind me of my dog's ball after a particularly vigorous play session.

??

I don't understand what you don't understand.

Not sure whether your reference was to your dog's anatomy...?

No. He left his at the vet's a couple of years' ago.

Thank God for that! I thought we'd had a disturbing insight into life behind closed doors there!
Now look what you've done.  You've made me wonder what a dog would do if it got hold of its own balls after detachment.  I didn't need to have this problem.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: torridon on October 30, 2015, 11:15:29 AM
not to do with Pluto, of course, but of enormous scientific interest, persistent and abundant molecular oxygen has been found on comet 67P.  Nobody would have predicted this when Rosetta was launched; this is going to force us to re-examine many of our assumptions.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/rosetta-mission-comet-67p-is-surrounded-by-huge-amounts-of-oxygen-scientists-say-potentially-a6713341.html
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Outrider on October 30, 2015, 11:26:00 AM
Why are all planets made of rock?

They aren't. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants, and whilst no-one's 100% sure what's at the centre, it seems likely that it's super-condensed liquid still.

Even then it depends on what you mean by 'rock' - The Earth has a solid crust, but the inner is molten, and whilst it's molten rock for most of the way, there's reasonably strong evidence that the core is metallic (iron in the centre, and then an outer layer of iron-nickel).

O.
Title: Re: Who cares if you call it a planet, it's amazing
Post by: Samuel on November 01, 2015, 06:18:17 PM
super-condensed liquid

That has blown my mind a little bit. I have to go and find out what that is